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- Herausgeber: iOnlineShopping.com
- Kategorie: Lebensstil
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
PREFACE In response to a suggestion that some of my father’s writings upon Fox-hunting should be collected and published in a separate volume, I have chosen the three papers contained in this book. His claim to be heard rests upon accomplishments still fresh in the annals of the chase; it may, however, be of interest to recall that he became Master of the Warwickshire Hounds in 1876, availing himself of the services of a professional huntsman until 1881, when he commenced to carry the horn himself, and continued to do so till ill health caused his retirement in the autumn of 1898.
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Table of contents
ADVICE ON FOX-HUNTING
PREFACE
CONTENTS
I. TO MASTERS OF HOUNDS
II. TO HUNTSMEN
III. TO WHIPPERS-IN
DRAWING AND RUNNING IN COVERT
BREAKING COVERT IN REGULAR HUNTING
HUNTING A FOX IN THE OPEN
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ADVICE ON FOX-HUNTING
ADVICE ON FOX-HUNTING
Henry XVIII th Baron Willoughby de Broke
PREFACE
In response to a suggestion that some of my father’s writings upon Fox-hunting should be collected and published in a separate volume, I have chosen the three papers contained in this book.
His claim to be heard rests upon accomplishments still fresh in the annals of the chase; it may, however, be of interest to recall that he became Master of the Warwickshire Hounds in 1876, availing himself of the services of a professional huntsman until 1881, when he commenced to carry the horn himself, and continued to do so till ill health caused his retirement in the autumn of 1898.
Kineton, Warwick.
CONTENTS
I. TO MASTERS OF HOUNDS
The first thing to be done on taking a country is to get the land and covert owners on your side. Write to all of them asking leave to draw their coverts, and express a hope that they will extend the same kindness in the preservation of foxes to you as they have always done to your predecessors.
I would advise as much compliance with the wishes of game preservers as is consistent with hunting the country fairly. But there is one thing I could never find it in my heart to do, which is, to stop the hounds when running hard for a game-preserver’s covert. If you are Master of a pack which belongs to the country, I say you have no right to spoil the hounds belonging to the county gentlemen by disappointing them in this way. No; by all means steer clear of the shooting-parties, and meet the shooter’s wishes as much as you can, but by no means, and for no man, stop your hounds when running.
I should never advise anyone to take a country in which there is an old-established huntsman, a favourite with everyone, and one whom it would be something like high treason on your part to dismiss. He will be master, not you. You will simply be a paying machine to settle all the bills and mount him, and he will constantly be grumbling about his horses, and perhaps will even give vent to his feelings in his speech at your puppy-show luncheon. Far the best plan is to start fresh with your own man, keeping perhaps one of the old staff to show the rest the way about at first. Choose a man of fair experience, and above all do not listen to the accounts of hunt-servants’ riding, and be led into taking on one of the boys who get huntsmen’s places in these modern days. The majority of hunting-men seem to think that, if a man or a boy will only jump big places, he must be a good huntsman, and boys get pitchforked into good places as huntsmen before they know how to whip-in or even to behave. When I began hunting, whippers-in did not look to be huntsmen before they were well past thirty. Nowadays it is no uncommon thing to find the huntsman the youngest of the three servants. I do not mean to say that a huntsman should not ride; of course, he should ride up to his hounds and see how far they have carried the scent, but everyone can ride if he only gets a horse good enough; the difficulty is to get a man who knows when to ride, and will do so only to get to his hounds, and not to win the approbation of an ignorant field. But always mount your men well, if only for economy’s sake; they will take care of good horses, but will not do so of bad ones.
Be careful how you breed your hounds. In forming a pack you will have to be dependent, in a great measure, on sires from other packs. But do not be tempted to run after a hound because he has won at Peterborough, or is very good-looking, or is even said to be very good in his work, if he comes of a strain that you do not like, or if his pedigree contains a lot of soft blood, or if his ancestors come from a kennel that you cannot trust. A chance-bred foxhound is like a chance-bred racehorse: he may be very good at his work, but he is worthless for breeding. Not being carefully bred himself, the faults of his progenitors are certain to be reproduced in his offspring. There is a good deal of nonsense talked about looks in these days, but, depend on it, the best working hounds in a pack are never the worst-looking, though, of course, a real beauty, a Peterborough winner, may turn out useless in the field. This is a good lesson. Turn up his pedigree, and you will find where the mistake in his breeding has been made. Never breed from a hound in his first season. He may develop all manner of faults, and you cannot breed a fault out: you must stamp it out. Some people think that if you breed from a noisy bitch and a mute dog, or vice versa, you will have hit the just medium in tongue. Far from it. In all probability half the litter will turn out mute, the other half noisy. Of course, neither hound ought to have been kept, much less bred from. Always draft a mute hound. There is no fault so bad, and the better he is in his work the more harm he will do. Then there is straightness. Everybody in his heart of hearts likes his hounds straight. In my experience it is only those who cannot breed straight hounds who prefer crooked ones; some even go so far as to say that a straight hound cannot be good in his work! But I always notice that, when hound breeders of this sort happen to breed a straight hound, they are as proud of him as a hen is of one chick. Of course, you must have plenty of good walks to breed a good pack of hounds, so that you can mercilessly afford to draft mute, noisy, skirting, or lame hounds, without getting your pack too short. A puppy show and a luncheon after it are good things; but do not have your huntsman’s health proposed. Indulgence in post-prandial rhetoric save by the experienced is apt to be dangerous. If you, or your huntsman, or both of you, are new to the country, I should say certainly go cub-hunting yourself every morning, so as to learn the locality yourself, or show it to your huntsman, as the case may be. And let cub-hunting be cub-hunting; keep your hounds on the dark as much as possible, and never try to have a run across the open. No man can ride to the hounds, in the Midlands at anyrate, while the leaf is on the hedges, consequently fences get pulled about, gaps are made, the farmers’ stock, especially the grass bullocks, injured, and altogether much more damage done by a few horsemen than is done by many in regular hunting. In dry, hard weather the hounds’ feet get injured, and in any weather at all they run a risk of being spoilt. They check: no one is with them, off go some of the entry after a hare, taking most likely a few of the one- and two-seasoned hunters with them, and in about half-an-hour all the trouble you have taken in breaking during the summer and autumn is lost. Sport for the field cannot be said to begin till November 1, but it is in the two or three months prior to this that a pack of hounds is made or marred, and these months must be given up to the Master and Huntsman to make the pack. I am fairly astonished to see that some establishments have actually taken to advertising their cub-hunting fixtures. This is the height of folly. There is no greater nuisance than a parcel of men, women, and grooms, the two former most likely smoking, all of them out on fresh horses, and talking in the rides of a covert. The Hunt servants cannot get about to do their work, and the hounds get kicked. Never commit “the fatal mistake” of not beginning cub-hunting as soon as the corn is cut; and never take fright, and leave off, because the ground gets hard. To do this is ruination to your entry and to the one- and two-seasoned hunters, who will begin forty times wilder than the young ones. Breed your hounds with good legs and feet, and they will not take much harm, and if you do screw up a few old cub-hunting horses, what matter?
